ELECTION '98.

Pucinski Makes Hospital Beer Party An Issue

Aurelia Pucinski, the Republican seeking to oust Cook County Board President John Stroger, on Monday blasted the way county officials handled a situation involving county hospital employees who drank alcohol at a party held during working hours.

Pucinski was reacting to televised news accounts that on Monday aired portions of a videotape made by one of the revelers at a bash held in 1995 at the hospital.

In August, the Tribune disclosed that the Cook County state's attorney's office was investigating the party for possible disciplinary proceedings and that an ex-county employee had sued the county for $3.5 million after he was fired shortly after he provided the tape to hospital administrators.

But after viewing the tape, Pucinski vowed that it would become an issue in her campaign against Stroger, saying it was an example of poor management at the hospital.

"This is the kind of behavior that good management simply would not tolerate," she said.

One employee was suspended for two weeks without pay and eight others were verbally reprimanded. But Pucinski contended the punishment was insufficient.

"I don't think we have seen any accountability," she said. "So they punished the whistle-blower, but they didn't punish the people who engaged in this behavior. This is unacceptable behavior. . . . I wouldn't tolerate it."

But Don Rashid, a spokesman for the hospital, said Monday that the televised report offered "no new grounds" for any additional disciplinary action against the partygoers. Most of the more than dozen employees who attended the party worked the overnight shift in the department that draws blood from patients and transports the blood to the laboratory for testing.

County officials maintained last August that patient health care wasn't compromised by the party, but they asked for the state's attorney to review the incident and the county's inspector general is investigating as well.

A spokeswoman for the Stroger campaign, Caryn Stancik, said it would be "irresponsible" to comment while those two investigations are under way.

Pucinski said she wants to debate the issues raised by the videotape with Stroger but noted that he has rebuffed her efforts to debate.